The ten-minute break had stretched to twenty before Henry
and the panel finished going over their notes to make sure they
had brought out everything that Mark, the university attorney,
had advised.
Diana and Janet were called back and Diana began the
cross examination of her department chair, Lyle Stone.
She asked him first to confirm a sentence written in his
memo to the dean and which he had testified to before the break.
"Yes," Lyle answered, "I did write in the memo to the dean
and also testified that I gave you all of the documents used
in the handwriting analysis."
Diana held up several sheets of paper from the evidence packet
on the table. "I have found documents dated nearly twenty years ago
in this material the committee has introduced as that sent to the document
examiners. These were not in the material that you gave me.
So your assertion that I was given all of the documents is incorrect."
Henry searched quickly through his copy of the evidence
that had been sent to the document examiners as standards.
Good God, he thought. What is this creature doing?
Come on Lyle, don't let her get the best of you.
Ah, much better, Henry observed happily to himself as Lyle
started tap dancing around her question. Instead of yes or no,
he would repeat at length some of his previous testimony with
added embellishments and avoid answering.
By persistent questioning, Diana established that he had stapled
her brief note to one of the `suspect' SmurFFs before it was sent
out for analysis. But it was like pulling teeth. He kept reiterating
that it was stapled to a `suspect' evaluation, so it would not get lost.
Patiently, she repeated her question, finally wearing him down.
"Were the document examiners given this evaluation with the note
stapled on it as one of the `fictitious' critiques?"
"Yes, they identified that critique as having been written by you."
"No distinction between the note and the critique was given them--
according to their report, is that correct?"
"I guess so, yes."
Using a sketch of the NERD office, Trenchant ran Lyle back
through his previous testimony of how the blank critiques,
the SmurFFs, were given out, how they were collected
and what happened to them afterwards.
From her intimate knowledge of the operation, she was able to
reveal most of the lies he had told of this process when the
committee was questioning him.
Jane was listening carefully. Slowly, there evolved the information
that this whole evaluation process was sloppy and unreliable.
That it had indeed, been this way for years. Given that,
she thought, how could he claim that such a high reliance
was put on SmurFFs when assessing faculty for reappointment?
Lyle admitted that students had scant desire to complete SmurFFs.
They considered it a useless effort since little or no attention
had been paid in the past to their comments.
"To force compliance," he explained, "students were told
that unless their name had been checked off on a list in
the secretaries' office, they could not receive their grade
for the course from the dean's office. Most students bring
in completed evaluation forms, place them in the box provided
and check off their names. Some merely come in and check off
their names, eschewing the forms," he finally admitted
with obvious reluctance.
This certainly puts a different light on things, Jane noted
as she jotted down the information being squeezed out of Lyle
by Diana. She carefully registered in neat script:
1. That the blank SmurFFs were left out in the open for days,
sometimes weeks so any body could have had access to them
2. That the completed SmurFFs left in the box, supposedly by
radiology students, were separated and given to each instructor;
the course critiques went to Ian and Randy
3. No tabulation of the number of critiques was carried out
4. Anyone could come in (etc.)
5. Since the critique form (etc.)
6. Most of the submitted critiques were not dated
The accused was left out of course planning meetings when
Ian and Randy met with Lyle, contrary to what he had just
told the committee.
None of the documents he had sent to the analysts contained
anything detrimental to Ian Heathson, as claimed in his memo
to the dean. She re-read what he'd written in the memo,
"These fictitious student critiques were very detrimental
and personally injurious to two junior faculty members."
Under Trenchant's quietly relentless cross examination, Lyle
became flustered. First he claimed that perhaps his language had
not been perfect in that phrase but what he meant was that,
"manipulation of critiques in general would be detrimental
to any faculty member."
Trying to bring him to the point, Trenchant read from
a signed, dated student critique that had not been deemed
`suspicious' by Lyle. It had been submitted during the same
period as the `questioned' critiques.
"Quote: `I think Randy needs to be more than one page ahead
of the class in understanding the material. How can you teach
what you do not know? I was also offended by the so-called
anthropological function' (he gave) `of the female breasts.
I am familiar with some of the literature which support the
statement in the handouts,' (in a lecture, Randy had emphasized
that the primary function of the female breast was to attract a
mate) `but was not aware that THE NAKED APE, PENTHOUSE MAGAZINE,
PLAYBOY MAGAZINE and so forth were regarded as competent medical
school publications. The underlying tragedy of this incident
is that it demonstrates the ease with which non-scientific
hypothesis are disseminated without any thought. This, I think,
is a poor reflection on the department and the faculty.' Unquote."
Diana continued, "This is what I would call personally
injurious but I do not see this student critique among
the `suspicious' ones--the ones sent out for analysis."
Henry started to sweat along with Lyle who was becoming
increasingly uncomfortable, his tone hostile. He dodged
and refused to answer directly a question asking if he always
sent suspicious critiques for handwriting analysis, claiming
that in this case, one of his junior faculty had asked him to.
Jane picked up on an item of special importance, and extremely
relevant, underlining it several times on her note pad.
Because of the negligent handling of the critique process,
there was no authentic chain of custody maintained! In addition,
neither the SmurFFs alluded to as `suspicious' nor the so-called
handwriting standards were ever authenticated.
According to the testimony she had just heard, each of the
so-called `suspicious' critiques had been discovered when the
finder was alone. Furthermore, Lyle could give no proof that
any of the `suspicious' SmurFFs he claimed were found,
had ever been placed in the return box provided for the students.
In fact, except for the few critiques that were signed,
there was no evidence that any of the nearly two hundred
uncontested critiques relating to the radiology course were
even submitted by the radiology students!
Jane was simply astounded. In all of Lyle's testimony, he had
offered no witnesses or evidence that could confirm his testimony
that students had been manipulated by the accused. Witchcraft
was insinuated, but never proven.
Henry was rapidly becoming unglued. Noting Lyle's declining control
and fearing an incipient outburst, Henry interrupted and declared
that they would now take a lunch break. How could that idiot sit there
and let himself give away that kind of detail on how SmurFFs were handled
in his department? Henry knew that this was having a deleterious effect
on the panel and he knew that he'd better set things straight while
there was still a chance to cover up.